Scam News

Christchurch -
Scammers are trying to cash in on the Christchurch mosque massacres, using phishing emails with links to fake bank accounts to ensnare people keen to donate, New Zealand's cyber security body said Monday.

Mars One, the company that promised to put humanity on the red planet has met an unfortunate, and what many say is an wholly-expected, end. Mars One Ventures, the for-profit arm of the Mars One mission, was declared bankrupt back in January.

A team of cybersecurity researchers has developed an AI chatbot that aims to waste scammers' time by responding to phishing emails. You can forward scam emails to the bot. A proxy email address will then start automatically replying the scammer for you.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has announced that federal agencies must improve their cybersecurity within the next 90 days. The decision, praised by the Global Cyber Appliance, will force agencies to use HTTPS and secure email accounts.

Facebook has announced it's taking steps to combat the rise of "cloaking" on its platform. The practice refers to a popular deception technique where scammers disguise a link to their website as a genuine News Feed post, fooling Facebook's moderators.

Fraud is, unfortunately, rife in most areas with scams and confidence tricksters attempting to prize people of their money. In the U.K. there are some regional patterns. For instance, Norfolk suffers with dating scams, Surrey with investment fraud.

Google has detailed its latest progress in its ongoing work to make email more secure. The company claimed its automated systems can now detect and filter out 99.9 percent of phishing emails. The statement comes after a recent high-profile Gmail scam.

The RCMP is warning Canadians about a new scam that is a twist on a previous one where fraudsters posed as employees of the Canada Revenue Agency. Scammers are now trying to re-victimize people who fell for the original fraud.

Minneapolis -
The two lawyers are alleged to have devised a scheme whereby they uploaded pornography on Internet sites and then threatened to sue anyone who downloaded the content. They then agreed to settle the cases in return for large cash payments.

iPhone owners are being targeted by scammers using iCal calendar event notifications in the run up to the holidays. Users are receiving invitations that claim to offer discounts on designer brands. The messages are fake and trigger more when responded to.

After a series of raids in and around Mumbai, police have charged 70 people and are questioning more than 600 more regarding allegations they were running a scam to defraud American taxpayers by posing as IRS officials.

A common trick used by advertisers and scammers is to design fake software download buttons to display alongside websites with legitimate links. Google has announced it will start to protect users against these deceptive buttons with a Chrome update.

Turin -
Prosecutors in Turin are probing seven Italian firms, including Carapelli, Bertolli and Sasso. The probe stems from allegations that the firms falsely sold olive oil products as "extra virgin."

Another Facebook privacy hoax is currently going viral on the social network, asking users to copy and paste a "privacy notice" to their profile if they want to avoid the social network charging $5.99 to retain access to private posts.

A hacker has been found to be earning as much as $100,000 a month while doing nothing more than using automated botnets to send nearly one million spam emails per day. The attack is based around the recently exposed RIG exploit kit.

A new form of banking malware discovered in the UK could have infected 20,000 customers in the past week. The malware is distributed in an email and can allow the attackers to remotely control the targeted user's system, stealing their bank details.

There is plenty of good science out there, and there is plenty of bad science. A scientist and journalist, John Bohannon, has highlighted how quickly 'bad science' can circulate with a spoof feature on chocolate and weight loss.

Google has enhanced its search protection algorithms to provide more protection against websites harbouring unwanted software designed to hijack a user's computer with unwanted browser settings or intrusive adverts on webpages.

Ibiza -
It was recently announced that scenes from season five of the popular HBO series Game of Thrones would be filmed in Seville and Osuna in Spain. Fraudsters saw the ideal opportunity to make a few illegal euros from the news.

London -
A website has been set up for U.K. motorists who are paying their annual driving tax. The problem is, the site charges a handling fee, unlike the official government website, and it can take multiple payments, according to one concerned reader.